1. Controversies – Cultural Bias
Implications in the real world: Controversies

2. What I will need to know
Be able to describe the issue of cultural bias in psychology
Evaluate the issue of cultural bias in psychology
Be able to apply to a novel situation
Be able to discuss:
Cross cultural studies
Difference or bias?
Ethnocentrism
Historical and social context

3. Introduction The topic of culture bias has come up a lot
You can use all of these examples to answer this question
What do we mean by “culture”? Culture can be defined as groups of people that may differ in terms of their norms, behaviours, practices, language, values, beliefs, ethnic background, language, location etc.

4. Introduction
It is not the same as nationality: you could live in a particular country, but belong to another culture.
Culture can also be separated into subcultures. Subculture: ‘cultures that are within cultures’ Lots of mini/sub cultures that exist and/or may be separate from the main culture

5. Introduction
What is “culture bias”? Culture bias is the act of interpreting and judging behaviour and psychological characteristics of one culture by holding them to the standards of your own.

6. Introduction In psychology this can take a number of different forms
Theories developed in one culture which are then applied inappropriately to all others
Biased research methods which only use participants which are not representative of all cultures.

7. Introduction Psychology is often accused of being culturally biased.
Much of the research carried out has been on white American or European undergraduate students, the results of which have then been applied to all people the world over.
Depending upon the behaviour being investigated, this may or may not be appropriate.

8. Introduction
Brain storm: what issues of culture bias have we come across before in psychology? Think about the topics from C3 as well as the things you learned in Y12.

9. 1. Cross Cultural Studies
Cross cultural psychology is a field of psychology that aims to investigate the effect of various cultural practices on human behaviour where cultures are compared and contrasted.
Most cross cultural psychology has involved comparisons between different nations or countries.

10. 1. Cross Cultural Studies
Cross cultural studies are often used as a way to determine whether a particular behaviour is universal (and therefore likely to be due to an innate biological cause such as genes) or whether it varies from culture to culture (and is therefore likely to be due to environmental and cultural factors).

11. 1. Cross Cultural Studies
What studies have we come across that make comparisons between different cultures?

12. 1. Cross Cultural Studies
Advantages
Cross cultural studies are a good way to help us understand what is innate about human behaviour.
It can also help us understand what is determined by our environment.

13. 1. Cross Cultural Studies
Disadvantages
When psychologists perform studies on groups from a culture that is very different from their own, they may misunderstand that culture, and interpret what they observe through the eyes of their own culture.
For example, depression in Nigeria
Observer bias can be a big issue. Psychologists, just like everyone else are socialised within a particular culture, and will usually hold the norms of that culture.

14. 1. Cross Cultural Studies
Disadvantages
The tools that are used by psychologists tend to be biased towards a Western view
These tools may not be appropriate for all cultures that may hold different views or who think differently.
This can be of particular issue when investigating intelligence for example
The use of psychological tests that have been devised in one culture and then used in another is called an imposed etic

16. 1. Cross Cultural Studies
Disadvantages
Cole et al (1971) asked adult members of the Kpelle tribe in Africa to sort familiar objects into groups.
In Western societies, people would sort the objects into categories (food, tools etc).
The Kpelle tribes people sorted them into functional groups (a knife with an orange because an orange can be cut by a knife

17. 1. Cross Cultural Studies
Disadvantages
This suggests that what is intelligent behaviour can differ from culture to culture. (when the Kpelle were shown how to sort the items in a “Western” way, they thought it was a stupid way of doing so!).

18. 1. Cross Cultural Studies
How might Kohlberg’s study of moral development have an imposed etic?

19. 1. Cross Cultural Studies
Another issue with cross cultural studies is that we are ignoring subcultural differences.
No one sample of people is going to be representative of the whole culture.
Can we make generalisations?
Vandello and Cohen (1999) for example found that the individualistic culture (self- centred approach) applied to most Americans in the Mountain West and the Great Plains, whereas a more collectivist culture (group centred approach) applied in the Deep South.

21. 1. Cross Cultural Studies
Look at the cross cultural studies you identified earlier. Do any of these evaluation points apply to them?

22. 2. Difference or Bias?
When studies are done cross culturally, if we find a difference between two cultures, does that mean that there is genuinely a difference, or does that difference reflect a problem with the methodology used?

23. 2. Difference or Bias?
It is often proposed that there is a difference between cultures. Hofstede (1984) outlined the main differences between individualist and collectivist cultures.
Individualist cultures - emphasise self-interest and the interest of one’s immediate family, personal autonomy (independence), initiative and achievement.
Collectivist cultures – emphasise loyalty to the group, interdependence and the belief that group decisions are more important than individual ones.

24. 2. Difference or Bias?
Someone’s culture can have an effect on their behaviour or their thought processes.
For example, attributions in collectivist cultures tend to be contextualised on the situation whereas attributions made by people in individualistic cultures tend to be more focussed on personal choice.
Also, the attribution error of the self-serving bias (taking credit for success, but not blame for failure) is much stronger in individualistic cultures.

25. 2. Difference or Bias?
What if the difference that we found is due to problems in the way in which we collect our data?
For example, if the intelligence test that we use was developed in the West, other cultures may score lower.
However, this difference does not reflect a real difference between the cultures, but a bias in the way the data is collected.

26. 2. Difference or Bias?
Harris (1995) investigated the role of love in 42 hunter-gatherer societies.
There was evidence of romantic love in 26 of these societies.
However, only 6 of them gave individuals complete freedom of choice of marriage partner, all of the others had some form of arranged marriage, or at least giving the parents the right of veto.
This study would seem to suggest that the notion of romantic love is not a universal one.

27. 2. Difference or Bias?
How might the results of the study above be explained through research bias rather than expressing a genuine difference?

28. 2. Difference or Bias?
What cross cultural studies have you learned about where differences were found? Could these differences be due to bias in the research?

29. 3. Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism is the view that our own culture should be the basis for judgements of other groups.
The views, beliefs and cultures of our own group are “normal” or superior, and those of other group are “strange”.

30. 3. Ethnocentrism
A common type of ethnocentrism found in psychology is Eurocentrism, a form of ethnocentrism where the emphasis is on Western (European or American) values.
This is hardly surprising; the vast majority of research in psychology comes from Europe and the USA.
Therefore, in psychological literature, there is an overwhelming bias towards theories of human behaviour that reflect the social norms of the West.

31. 3. Ethnocentrism The opposite of ethnocentrism is cultural relativism.
This regards all cultures are equally worthy of respect, and the role of psychology is to understand how other cultures view the world.

32. 3. Ethnocentrism
Both ethnocentrism and cultural relativism can result in bias. Hare-Mustin and Maracek (1988) proposed that bias can exist in two forms.
Alpha Bias
Beta Bias

33. 3. Ethnocentrism Alpha bias
The assumption that there are actual differences between cultural groups.
We may miss universals of human behaviour
For example, while some of the symptoms of schizophrenia may vary between cultures, there are some universals.
If we were to take an alpha biased stance, we would miss these universals, and possibly the underlying biological cause of the illness.

34. 3. Ethnocentrism Beta bias
The assumption that all people are the same.
This is the opposite of alpha bias, as differences between groups are ignored.
For example, in the study by Harris, the differences in the definition of romantic love may have been ignored by the researcher, and an assumption made that the Western view of romantic love was universal, leading to the results he found.

35. 3. Ethnocentrism
Beta bias can also arise when studies conducted on Western samples produce theories that are then universally applied to all people, ignoring any cultural differences.
This may not always be appropriate.
Amir and Sharon (1987)
Failed to replicate the findings of American studies on Israeli participants

36. 3. Ethnocentrism
Alpha bias could be argued to occur when the differences between individualistic and collectivist cultures are exaggerated.
It has been argued that while the collectivist/individualistic distinction is important, not everyone in a particular culture will hold the views of the majority
Trandis et al (2001) estimated that only about 60% of people conform to the dominant culture

37. 3. Ethnocentrism
Could any of the studies or theories that you have looked at have an alpha or beta bias?

38. 4. Historical and Social Context
Traditionally, psychology has until quite recently been almost exclusively a Western subject.
While more non-western nations start to conduct their own psychological research, the overwhelming history of psychology has been white, middle class and Western.

39. 4. Historical and Social Context
Rosenzweig (1992) found that 64% of the world’s 56,000 researchers in psychology are American.
However, while this finding itself is likely to be out of date, it is probable that the USA still has more psychologists than any other nation.

40. 4. Historical and Social Context
Haggbloom et al (2002) used various kinds of evidence to identify the greatest psychologists of the twentieth century.
Less than 20% of them (including, Freud, Piaget, Pavlov and Vygotsky) were non-American.
Historically, psychology has not only been a Western concept, but a uniquely American one.

41. 4. Historical and Social Context
Historically, European and American studies have had a favourable publication bias.
Smith and Bond (1998) found that 66% of all the studies in a sample of psychology textbooks came from America, 32% from Europe, and 2% from the rest of the world.
Non-western views of human behaviour have, until very recently been invisible.

42. 4. Historical and Social Context
Also, cultures change over time.
Particularly in our modern, interconnected world, cross cultural research may go out of date quickly.
As the internet causes the world to get smaller, and Western views become more universal, any study that finds differences between cultures may only be taking a snapshot that will go out of date

43. 4. Historical and Social Context
Westen (1996) who quoted the work done by an American doctor, Celia Mosher who asked her middle class female patients about their sex lives at the end of the 19th century.
Those who had been born in the middle of that century saw sex as vital for reproduction, but not very pleasurable
Those born near the end of the century described sex in more positive terms, and saw it as closely linked to passionate love.

44. 4. Historical and Social Context
We could argue therefore that different time periods are essentially different cultures; “The past is a foreign country”. These studies could be argued to lack temporal or historical validity.
How might Bowlby’s study of the 44 Thieves demonstrate this point?

45. What can we do to improve?
In the exam, you will not specifically be asked about how to reduce cultural bias in psychology.
However, it would be good to include a brief discussion of improvements to add depth and range in your answer.
These points could also make up part of a conclusion.

46. What can we do to improve?
If you were in charge of all psychology, what would you do to improve it, and make it less culturally biased?

47. What can we do to improve?
One way to do this is to encourage indigenous psychologies.
This is where psychology is carried out by the members of a particular culture themselves, rather than Western psychologists.
By cultures investigating themselves, rather than being investigated by outsiders who may not grasp the nuances of their culture, researcher bias should be reduced.

48. What can we do to improve?
Nobles (1976)
Eurocentric psychology has presented a view of humankind that is based on one particular type of culture and is not representative of all people.
The European worldview is orientated along the principles of “survival of the fittest” and “control over nature”.

50. What can we do to improve?
These two principles therefore affect European values and customs with an emphasis on competition, individual rights, independence and uniqueness.

51. What can we do to improve?
The African worldview however differs.
The emphasis is on “survival of the tribe” and “oneness with nature” leading to the values of co-operation, interdependence and collective responsibility.

52. What can we do to improve?
Therefore, Afrocentrism focuses on these uniquely African values, rather than forcing European values onto a culture that they are not compatible with.

53. Conclusion
Having examined the evidence and arguments, what conclusions can you come to?
Is culture bias a big issue? Why?
What are the main causes of culture bias?
What problems might it cause?
What can be done?

54. Exam practice Answer the exam style questions
Make sure that you read the guidance first!